Content runs deep.
Strong content builds deep relationships that last decades. Our professional writers, curators, and artists create meaningful content destined for long-term brand building.
Content is in our bones. Plazm began as a magazine publisher in 1991, then branched out into books, video, and digital content. Clients value our deep history in publishing, editorial, and the arts—and the incredible collaborators we bring in across all categories of creative content.
Pacific Northwest College of Art
Magazines, editorial, print & digital
PNCA was a small art college seeking a new approach to recruitment. Plazm came on board to help strategically reposition the PNCA brand and develop meaningful, successful marketing materials. Dazzling magazines with high production values served as recruitment and college catalogues. Our interactive maps and other online and print marketing collateral leveraged the college’s ties to Portland’s emerging visibility as a creative destination. Plazm developed a new editorial voice, conducted artist interviews, and wrote copy from alumni newsletters to new MFA program descriptions. View case study
Powell’s Books: Marquee
In-Store to Online Customer Conversion
Every summer, over 1.5 million tourists flock to this legendary bookstore. They enter beneath the iconic Powell’s marquee, which lists the names of famous visiting authors. Our task: converting these visitors to online customers. We did it with an on-site photo booth and email campaign. Visitors received portraits of themselves in front of Powell’s—with their own names featured on the marquee. The busy, popular booth brought thousands to the Powell’s database, exceeded sales goals, and turned memorable visits into a lasting relationships. View case study
Plazm magazine
Printed magazines, editorial, print, digital, events
Plazm began not as a design firm but as a magazine, created cooperatively by a group of young artists and writers in Portland, Oregon. The year was 1991, when Portland’s future as an internationally celebrated hub of creative culture was still far off. Plazm magazine imported culture to Portland and exported the small city’s distinctive creative culture to the rest of the world, helping the city evolve into a hub of arts and culture. The magazine features politics, fashion shoots, music coverage, fiction, photography, illustration, design, poetry, and art. View issue archive.
Tahni Holt performs a dance in a freight elevator at our 15th anniversary party.
XXX: The Power of Sex in Contemporary Design
Book, gallery & museum installations
Gender issues, humor, romance, and the sex act itself: Rockport Publishing invited Plazm to take on these interesting, daunting subjects. Plazm staff and collaborators wrote, designed, curated, and edited the book XXX, which is wrapped in a silkscreened rubber cover. The book inspired museum and gallery exhibitions; Steven Heller wrote the introduction to the exhibits. Dan Savage wrote the book’s foreword. View case study
The Wyatt
Stories, booklet, brochure, website
Our client Robert Ball Companies embarked on an ambitious new project: The Wyatt. The property bridged the Pearl District’s industrial past to its present role as Portland’s thriving urban center. We helped tell the story through digital and printed materials rich in description, texture, and production values.
What sparks innovation?
Festival event, talk, digital, video
Liquid Agency, based in Silicon Valley, had opened an office in Portland. How best to showcase their brand of innovative design thinking in Oregon? Curated and staged by Plazm partner Josh Berger for Liquid, “What Sparks Innovation?” brought a fascinating conversation to Design Week Portland. The event highlighted the agency’s thought leaders and provided the basis for multiple rounds of depth content: written interviews, blog posts, social media, and video. Featuring Marty Neumeier, Mohan Nair, Genevieve Bell, Jeff Faulkner, and Michael Shea; watch full event video.
Jantzen: Influencers
Film, interactive, advertising, bespoke book
When we helped Jantzen relaunch their historic swimwear brand, we aligned the brand with influencers and niche cultural audiences to start. Here, we organized a sponsorship of the Telluride Film Festival, coordinated it with an advertising campaign, and reached out to top influencers. They received this special package of content curated by Plazm, including interactive, independent film, and music, presented in a limited-edition bespoke format. View case study
OnCreativity
Video series
How do the world’s top artists, designers, creative directors, and musicians work with their own creativity? How does the process work? Plazm’s Niko Courtelis explores creativity by interviewing Ann Hamilton, George Lois, Claw Money, Arturo Vega, Milton Glaser, and more. View ongoing series at OnCreativity.tv
100 Habits of Successful Graphic Designers
Published hardcover book, paperback book
What if the best way to promote yourself is not to do it at all? Twelve of the world’s top designers explore such questions while giving practical advice in 100 Habits of Successful Graphic Designers: Insider Secrets from Top Designers on Working Smart and Staying Creative (Rockport Publishing). Written, curated, and designed by Plazm’s Joshua Berger and Sarah Dougher, the book features Andy Altman of Why Not Associates, Margo Chase, Ed Fella, John C Jay of Wieden + Kennedy Tokyo, and Hideki Nakajima, among others.
20 years of Plazm
Gallery installation
Plazm has been creating original content since 1991—back when Plazm took the form of a printed magazine, with no design firm or digital presence. We were honored to celebrate our long history of content creation in an exhibition at Archer Gallery, Clark College, in 2011.
F30
Hardcover book, softcover book
F30 is a book focused on the thirty most useful and functional typefaces in use today. Plazm’s Joshua Berger and publisher/designer Paopaws arrived at the selections after extensive questioning of design department chairs at RISD, Art Center, Basel, Yale, and St. Martin. In an era where fonts go in and out of style in months, these thirty typefaces stand the test of time.
